Asylum-seekers, single parents, the unemployed, youth in crisis: all run a greater risk of becoming homeless than other Australians.
The aim is to alleviate the financial and other burdens some people experience, so they can get back on track to lead an independent life.
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Mr Alan Armstrong left his native United Kingdom to live in Perth with his family.
However, the life he had planned changed suddenly when his marriage broke up and, at the same time, he found himself unemployed.
Having run out of money and with no relatives to support him, he ended up living in his car.
"Homelessness can happen to anybody. I would have never, ever imagined myself ending up homeless or sleeping in my car. I am well educated, you know. I have a Master's degree, you know, and I just would have never imagined. But what I realised was this can happen to anybody," Mr Armstrong said.
"It's not easy and I mean you have got no access to facilities, really. I was washing in the river. It's degrading," he said.
However, through the help of a friend, Mr Armstrong experienced Homestay, which he says allowed him to recover from both his financial and personal hardship.
Two years on from becoming homeless, Mr Armstrong has stepped in to support the Australian Homestay Network (AHN) initiative to provide affordable meals and accommodation to people in need.
AHN Executive Chairman, David Bycroft, says the Helping Hand Homestay program will see both "guests" and "hosts" helping each other.
He says the cost will be about 100 dollars per week for guests, while families will receive 50 dollars and help around the house.
"The types of activities we are talking about could be just mowing lawns or cleaning windows or helping with cooking. And look there are retired Australians who can't drive to the shop any more. So the asylum-seeker (for example) could actually get some driving skills, drive to the shops, pick up the shopping and make the meals," Mr Bycroft said.
While the Helping Hand program is open to anyone in need, the Homestay Network has already been running a Community Placement Program specifically designed to help asylum-seekers coming out of detention to integrate in their new community.
Under this program, selected families receive a weekly payment to cover expenses resulting from hosting their guest for up to six weeks.
Mr Bycroft says asylum-seekers could easily transfer from one program to the other.
"There's many of those asylum-seekers coming out of that placement thinking about share accommodation for the first time and realising how much that costs. So what we are looking to do is giving them other options, where they might travel to a regional part of Australia and become part of another hosted family or host situation," he said.
Melbourne-based Mrs Hillary and Mr Noel McVey have hosted nine asylum-seekers under the Community Placement Program.
They say they have never felt uncomfortable about having guests and helping them integrate in the community.
Hilary says she wouldn't mind joining the Helping Hand program but concedes she may have some reservations.
"It's not something that I would like to jump up and down and say, 'Oh yes, you've got to go and wash the kitchen floor.' If the situation arose, then that would be OK. I don't know how comfortable how I would be living with someone who does my homework for me. But if it helped them, I mean that's the name of the game. It's not completely altruistic, we just want to help,” Mr McVey said.
Afghan-born refugee Sayed Ahmad spent most of his life in Pakistan, after his father was killed by the Taliban.
He arrived in Australia in 2012, after boarding a boat in Indonesia.
When his asylum claim was assessed as genuine, he was released from detention and had to find accommodation.
He says staying with a host family helped him greatly.
"Nowadays I am very happy. The homestay [people] treat us like a family. They do everything for me: about work, about licence, about the shopping centres. They are saying "you do right things and this is bad things," so they care like a child, you know?" Mr Ahmed said.
AHN's David Bycroft says his organisation has also established a trust for individuals and corporations, who would like to help people in need but can't host them.
He says funds donated to the Community Placement Network Assistance Trust will be spent to provide services such as health care, accommodation, English language courses and employment training.
